By Tom Weber, KWMU
St. Louis – Thousands of students in Missouri will spend the next month taking standardized MAP tests.
Today is the first day schools can give the tests, though each district sets its test schedule.
And this year, more students in more grades will take the MAPs because the federal No Child Left Behind Law requires it.
Assistant Education Commissioner Stan Johnson said that presents some logistical challenges.
"We will have to score a lot more tests," Johnson said. "And in scoring the MAP-like tests, with the constructive responses and the performance events - since it's not a multiple choice tests as such, the time it takes to score those and get those back to schools takes some time, quite frankly."
In the past, students were only tested in a subject three times between grades 3 and 12.
Now they have to take the math and communication arts tests each year in grades 3 through 8, and once again in high school.